Masari: I‘ll restore Katsina’s glory

Former House of the Representatives Speaker Hon. Aminu Bello Masari is the Katsina State governor-elect on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with reporters in Katsina, the state capital, he unfolds his plans for the state. TONY AKOWE was there.

This is your second attempt at becoming governor of Katsina State and by the grace of God, you became the winner. We want you to share your experience with us.

It is really an experience for somebody to contest election in a party that is in the opposition, especially because of the way we see opposition in this country. I believe that opposition is also a partner in development in the democratic process of a country. Unfortunately, in some quarters, people in opposition party are seen as enemies and not as partners. So, my experience since I joined the opposition in 2009 is that for you to be in the opposition, you have to be very patient, persevere and also to be steadfast. Once you have an idea which you believe in, you should remain constant and consistent and, at the end, God will definitely be with you in terms of succeeding. So, my experience has really been mixed in the sense that the ordinary person want change all the time, but the powers that be always want to maintain the status quo. The worst situation is the lack of level-playing ground which has been lacking. Now, with the introduction of the card reader, it is almost impossible to inflate votes and this has made a little difference. Really, with the right leadership in right place at the right time, Nigeria will get it right.

What should the people expect from you when you are sworin in?

If you passed through our campaign office, we said our project is Restoration 2015 for Katsina. What are we restoring? Traditionally, Katsina is known for investment and producing highly educated and technically sound people. So, our main area, our first target, second target and third target is education, because the standard of education is poor in Katsina today. Public schools in the state could not even achieve three per cent success in last year’s WAEC. If you take the entire Katsina indigenes, whether they live in Lagos, Abuja or elsewhere in the country, 45,800 of them sat for WAEC and only 4,500 got five credits and above. This is a shame for a state where the first middle school in northern Nigeria was established. First generation, second generation and third generation of students from that institution, including the President-elect, have made their mark in different fields of human endeavour. We were the first to open an education account in the United Kingdom for the training of our people. But, today, from 1999 to 2014, we have presented over 255,000 students for WAEC. What did we get out of that? Only 32,000 of them secured five credits and above. During my campaign, I was able to travel to all the 34 local government areas. I slept in 27 and in each local government I made sure that I did not follow the tarred road. This was to assess the state of infrastructure in the state. What did we see? The roofs of about 60 per cent of our primary schools have their roofs blown off, windows and doors destroyed and no concrete flooring. On the average, one classroom houses about 97 children. What are we talking about? There is a particular district only one child successfully completed senior secondary school. The rest dropped out because there were no teachers and no classrooms. It is a terrible situation. There was a time we presented over 17,000 students for WAEC and only 370 passed. We cannot continue like this. So, what we are bringing on the table is the issue of education. Secondly, Katsina is an agrarian state. Our economy was until the discovery of oil dependent on agriculture and livestock. Where are we today? We can’t feed ourselves. Forget about imported rice, imported macaroni, imported spaghetti, imported everything. If, for whatever reason, the import stopped, how do we feed ourselves? People said they are surprise that could not feed themselves at a time, when they ran short of food. That exposed the weakness in the system they were operating. We cannot sit down here and depend on rice from China, rice from India, rice from Thailand when we have water and the land. Before Katsina was created as a state, it was a province. This province was constructing roads, schools, hospitals, court, it had the police, prison services, the judiciary; they were paying salaries and carrying out development projects. Why can’t we replicate that today? The province was also making its contribution to the running of the Northern Regional government. Where are we today? If this money coming from Abuja stops, the state cannot survive for one month.

How do you intend to attract funds to run the state?

The problem is that we have not always been open and honest with our people. It is not about resources alone. You think that development depends on money alone, but it is not so. Even the military were building roads, hospitals and others. Under the colonial administration, the emirate system was building everything. Democracy is about being open with the people. If you have money, let the people know that you have money and let them have a say on how this money is spent. Each time, we talk about lean resources. No, it is not about lean resources, but about good management of resources. If you allow the local councils to operate, if you allow a ward to produce a Councilor that represents the people and not himself, things will work out well. We don’t have councils now. The key word is not lack of resources, but involving people in decision making. That is the essence of democracy. This state under the Native Authority as a Province was doing well looking after itself. But, today, this is not so. We want to look at Katsina in the next 20 or 30 years. There was a time when crude oil was less than 10 dollars and it can happen again tomorrow. We’re not in a position to determine the price. The world powers decide how much they will buy your oil, what quantity they need. So, we have no control over pricing, we have any control over the market. We have no control over even the imported products. How can we depend on something that has a life span? Let us depend on the land to give us food. No country is great when it cannot feed itself.

What is your plan for those you defeated at the APC primary?

We have already passed that stage. Nine of us contested the primary and all of us worked for the success of the APC in Katsina State. Everybody was also involved in the preparation for the presidential and National Assembly elections, as well as the governorship election. They all brought in materials and their physical presence into the project. So, we don’t have problems in that regard; that’s why we say that we are going to do things differently. Even though the APC emerged as the winner of the election, the other parties are from Katsina and we will offer them a hand of fellowship too. We are going to be magnanimous; we are going to be leaders. We are going to provide leadership and not rulership. We have no problem in carrying along anybody who has the interest of the people of Katsina at heart. Our key word here is the people. It is not about skyscrapers. It is not about roads that will not go anywhere, but to develop the people and the people will develop the land.

In what ways would the emergence of Buhari at the centre help your administration?

We are not meeting with Buhari on the platform of political party alone. We have a long standing relationship and now, we have a political relationship. That Buhari is from Katsina State is a plus for us. But, it depends on how we manage it. We want Buhari to be a Nigerian leader. We don’t want Buhari to be a regional, zonal or provincial leader. We want him to be a Nigerian leader that will leave a legacy of positive contribution to this country and that is the basis on which people elected him. So, we will help him to maintain and improve on those qualities which the people of Nigeria see in him. We will never do anything that will tarnish his image, his reputation or his standing internationally and nationally. So, for us, the emergence of Buhari is a plus. When we go somewhere and say I am from Katsina, we want the doors to be open. So, for us, it is a plus.

Taking you back to the issue of education, are you going to follow your party’s policy on education or do you intend to initiate your own home-grown policy?

The first item on the agenda of the APC manifesto is human resource development. How can you develop human resources without education. Fundamentally, the position of APC in education is known. In Katsina, the figures not produced by me, but in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education gives Katsina about 20 per cent enrollment rate and some states have achieved 80 per cent enrollment rate. So, their approach and mine will be different, but the goal remains the same. Here in Katsina, we will design a road that will lead us to success on the basis of the basket provided by our political party in the area of education. We will take roads that will lead us, that will lead Katsina to salvage itself, restore the honour, dignity and integrity of the people of Katsina state. We cannot do that outside education. The road that other states will take to arrive at their destination may be different from ours, but the objective would remain the same.

You were Speaker of the House of Representatives for four years. What kind if leadership will you suggest for the 8th Assembly to assist Gen. Buhari in piloting the affairs of this nation?

Luckily, we are going to have a comfortable majority in the National Assembly. What I have seen as a former member of the House of Representative is that because of patronage system by the governors, they have destroyed the institution. Patronage system in the sense that for you to become a senator, you must be in the right books of the governor. For you to be a member, you start lobbying the governor to make you a candidate for you to be a member of the National Assembly. Not because the governor believes that you have something to offer other than being attracted by the package and the limelight. Definitely, at the National Assembly, if you play your cards well, it is an opportunity to come into limelight. Really, most people derail when they get to the National Assembly. If we go there, what interest do we represent? How do we subsume our local interest into national interest? If you are making an act, it is for the entire country. If you are participating in the budget, you have to find a way of subsuming your interest into national interest. As long as the interest you represent cannot be subsumed into the national development agenda, which is the budget, you are no longer providing representation. The reality of the situation is, let us allow the system to work. In determining the leadership, the leadership has to be focused on why we need the change. So, we must get leaders that understand why we need the change in Nigeria. It is not about changing faces or names. It is about changing how we conduct businesses of government at any level, how do we as Nigerians do things. After all, South Africa said it is returning our money after Buhari is sworn in. Why? The international community is comfortable that somebody who will manage the resources well is coming. These are the kind people we need and it should be the vision of those coming to the National Assembly. I hope they are not attracted by the package, but also by the work.

Finally, how would you describe your emergence as the governor-elect?

If you know me well, I am a normal person. I don’t look at things in such a way that it will carry my mind off the direction. We have promised, we have pledged and we have prayed that God will give us the opportunity to restore the honour, dignity, prestige and integrity of the people of Katsina State and this is what we are going to work for. We see it as a challenge. I am not here not make a new name. As Speaker, I was the only person in the country and was given a presidential treatment anywhere I go in the country. I am here because we believe that without executive power, you cannot make any meaningful contribution to development in this country at this point in time. That is why I have decided to come back home and see how I can repay what the society has invested in me. I am a product of public institution. So, I cannot be there and watch public institutions, where 99 per cent of our people started from, crumble. If you are having 20 per cent pass from Katsina State, where will Katsina be in 20 years time? It means we will be nowhere in the scheme of things in Nigeria. There are some states in Nigeria that if they stop going to school, it will take us 30 years in Katsina to catch up with them.